Australian social media users put Facebook first and LinkedIn and Twitter far, far behind

Consumer usage of social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn is vastly outstripped by Facebook, newly released research for Sensis and the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association suggests. A second part of the study signals that Australian businesses are preparing to pile into social media in the coming 12 months.

The consumer part of the research was based on a telephone survey of 803 people carried out in the first three months of 2011 and weighted to reflect the demographics of the Australian population.

It found that 62% of them said they used social media which the survey defined as including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, blogs and group buying sites.

And of those 62%, Facebook dwarfed all other social media usage. A total of 97% of the social media users said they used Facebook.

ADVERTISEMENT

Slightly more make use of LinkedIn than Facebook, the report said.

After Facebook, came LinkedIn with 9%, followed by Twitter on 8% and MySpace on just 4%.

However, Twitter users are the most loyal to the site, saying that they used it on average 23 times per week – just ahead of Facebook on 16. 2times per week.

Another finding is that on average, social media users estimate they have 217 friends, followers or contacts.

On average, those Twitter users surveyed follow just 35 people each. (However, the sample size for this was just 38 Twitter users, stretching the statistical reliability of the data.)

The survey also suggested that brands are missing out on opportunities to connect via Twitter. A total of 64% of the Twitter users said they did not follow any brands at all.

Meanwhile among users of group buying sites, Cudo was by some way the most popular. (The base for this was 49 respondents, so again the detailed statistics should be treated with some caution).

A second part of the study – based on interviews carried out with business people in January and February for the Sensis Business Index – quizzed Australian businesses on their social media strategies.

The study indicated that Facebook is the most popular social media presence.

And the report also examines what brands are spending on their social media presence.

On average, large companies said they were spending just under $80,o00 a year on social media marketing. Medium sized companeis averaged $6,500 and small companies just over $2,000.

For most companies, the proportion of marketing spend shifting to social media is still relatively small though.

However, most companies – small and large – see the next 12 months as a period where they will increase their spending on social media. And they anticipate that the effort will result in increased sales.

Anyone got any tools for looking at Australian news sites and finding mentions of “twitter” vs “Facebook”. Even I’m sick of seeing Twitter or someone’s tweets referenced in every single article. Best I can do in 2 mins is this – http://www.google.com/insights.....038;cmpt=q

Facebook is personal social media. Linkedin is more akin to professional social media. Twitter is little more than ego social media. And the findings are based on a survey of 803 ‘consumers’ out of a potential, what… 16 million? So what does this very, very thin survey really have to offer? Four fifths of five eights of bugger all. And to then link it in one sentence to a prediction that businesses will be ‘piling into social media’ simply beggars belief.

Those figures look a little rubbery to me probably because of the small sample size involved, Myspace 30-somethings at 9%?

Anon – Twitter is indeed considered to be part of the social media sphere which is often defined something like “a sharing of user generated news or other content” (as opposed to a one way distribution of centrally generated news or other content) Social media and communication networks can blur at their intersection. Skype anybody?

Aidan, quite right about the definition ‘user generated news’. Twitter indeed has been exceptional in spreading news in times of crisis especially in regions known for media censorship. As to Skype, I use Skype for communication but would consider it another ‘business communication platform’ rather than social media.

yeah I suppose it depends on where you want to draw the lines and in some cases how you use the particular services. I tend to think of Skype and user generated content like Hubpages stuff in the wider interpretations of the term.

Just for fun checked how ‘wiki peed’ has it interpreted – as of this moment it includes Skype as social media but does not mention hubpages…

It’s hard for me to comment because none of the graphs (well I assume they are graphs or tables) in the Mumbrella report are rendering in any of the three browsers I use.

I did however have a cursory look at the PDF (hey, it’s nearly midnight). The methodology of phone is fine by me as it is (aside from face-to-face) probably the least biased method. It would be interesting to know whether they included ‘mobile-only’ households in the n=803 sampling frame. Mind you if the haven’t I epxect the usage figures for SM would be even higher. The distribution and weighting of the sample look fine. The sample size for the SME data is very robust, and to get 200 large businesses employees to respond is a tough call – so well done.

I’ve had a look at the topline results and none of them look out of kilter. My only word of caution would be in ‘slicing and dicing’ the data too fine. That is, if you cross-tabbed by age, gender and location a question like ‘frequency of usage of SM’ then I think the results would be more directional that absolute quantities.

This website uses cookies for proper functioning and enhancing the user experience. By clicking 'Accept' on this banner or using our site you accept our use of cookies. You can also 'Read More' to view our Cookie Policy and learn how to control them. Read More